When students have completed the Show Part of the
Whole pages, discuss Questions 4–5. These questions
involve fractions other than unit fractions. To
discuss Question 5, display a yellow hexagon and
ask student volunteers to show the fractional parts
you describe.
- If this yellow hexagon is the whole, show one-fourth. [One brown trapezoid is placed onto the
yellow hexagon.]
- Show two-fourths of the yellow hexagon. [Two brown trapezoids are placed onto the yellow
hexagon.]
- What do you notice about the area that two-fourths
covers? (It is half of the yellow hexagon.)
- Can two brown trapezoids and one red trapezoid
both be one half of the yellow hexagon? How can
you show that with pattern blocks? (Possible
response: Yes; I can place two fourth pieces,
two brown trapezoids, on top of one red trapezoid
which is also half of a yellow hexagon.
They cover the same amount.) [See Figure 7.]
- Show three-fourths. How do you know it is
three-fourths? (Possible response: Each part is
one-fourth and I can count one-fourth,
two-fourths, three-fourths.)
- Is three-fourths greater than or less than
two-fourths or one half? Show that with blocks. (greater than)
- Is three-fourths greater than or less than
one whole? (less than)
- How many fourths is one whole? (four-fourths)
- If Mrs. Murphy had a cake shaped like this yellow
hexagon, how could she share it fairly among
four children? (She could give each child
one-fourth.)
- How much of the cake would two children eat?
Three children? (two-fourths or one-half;
three-fourths)
Ask students to use pattern blocks and colored pencils
or crayons to solve the problem on the Mrs.
Murphy's Party Cake page in the Student Activity
Book.
Read the problem aloud to students as they
follow along:
- Mrs. Murphy made a big cake shaped like this for a
party.
- Half of the cake was chocolate and half of the cake
was yellow. Color the chocolate half brown.
- Color the yellow half yellow.
- One-fourth of the cake had strawberry filling. Put
red dots on this part.
- The rest of the cake had vanilla filling. How much
of the cake had vanilla filling?
- She cut the cake into eight equal pieces. Trace a
pattern block to show the cake cut into eighths.
Use the Mrs. Murphy's Party Cake page in the Student
Activity Book to assess students' abilities to partition shapes
into equal shares [E2] and use words and models to describe
equal shares (e.g., half, third, fourth, sixth, eighth) [E4].
To provide targeted practice with partitioning shapes into two
and four equal shares, place copies of the Fold and Color Halves and Fold and Color Fourths Assessment Masters,
scissors, colored pencils or crayons, and gluesticks in a center.
